For thousands of parents raising children with hearing disabilities, technology like cochlear implants and hearing aids is not optional—it’s a lifeline. These devices help children hear their parents’ voices, learn their first words, attend school, and live with dignity. Yet, instead of making them accessible, the indian government has slapped them with an outrageous 18% GST, treating them like luxury items.
This isn’t just a financial burden—it’s a moral failure. A nation that prides itself on “inclusive growth” is taxing its most vulnerable children for the simple right to hear. parents are begging for relief, but the silence from policymakers is deafening.
Here’s why this tax is cruel, unjust, and must be scrapped immediately.
1. Hearing aids Are Not iPhones—Stop Taxing Them Like Gadgets
A cochlear implant is not a lifestyle accessory. It’s the difference between silence and sound, between isolation and education. Treating it like a taxable luxury item is inhuman.
2. Families Already Drown in Medical Debt
Parents of children with hearing loss spend lakhs on therapy, surgery, batteries, and hospital visits. Adding an 18% GST is like kicking them while they’re already down.
3. Inclusivity Is Not a Slogan—It’s Policy
The prime minister speaks of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.” But where is the saath for children who cannot hear? Policies that punish disability are the opposite of inclusive.
4. Every Rupee of GST = Stolen Opportunity
That 18% tax isn’t just money—it’s therapy hours lost, a school fee unpaid, a device upgrade delayed. For children in their most formative years, those lost chances can never be regained.
5. A Rich Nation Cannot Tax the Poor Child’s Ears
India spends crores on vanity projects, subsidies, and political campaigns. Yet when it comes to giving a deaf child the chance to hear, the state demands a tax. What kind of justice is this?
6. international Precedent: Other Nations Support, Not Tax
Across the world, governments either waive taxes or subsidize cochlear implants. india stands out not for progress but for punishing the disabled.
7. Waiving GST Isn’t Charity—It’s Justice
Parents aren’t asking for sympathy. They’re demanding fairness. If wheelchairs aren’t taxed, why are hearing aids? If education is a right, shouldn’t the ability to hear and learn be untaxed too?
8. The Deaf Child’s Future Should Not Depend on GST Slabs
Every moment of delay in reducing this tax is another child slipping further into silence, isolation, and inequality. This is not policy—it is cruelty.
👉 Bottom Line:
The 18% GST on cochlear implants and hearing aids is not just a tax—it is a punishment for being born with a disability. If india truly believes in empowerment, if the Prime Minister’s promises of inclusivity mean anything, then this cruel tax must be scrapped now.
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